Can Misses Hospital in Ibiza is preparing further security measures after carrying out more than 40 interventions in recent years, according to the Ibiza and Formentera Health Area. The announcement comes amid renewed scrutiny of hospital safety following a patient's death currently under police investigation, two sexual assaults involving hospitalised patients and repeated incidents of aggression against healthcare professionals.

The Health Area has confirmed to La Voz de Ibiza that additional security interventions are being prepared, although some details cannot yet be made public. It has not provided a full breakdown of the more than 40 actions already completed, specified how many were introduced following each incident or given a timetable for the outstanding measures.

The latest developments have brought renewed attention to how the hospital protects vulnerable patients, controls access to its facilities and responds to potentially dangerous situations involving patients, visitors and healthcare workers.

More than 40 security interventions, with further changes planned

The Ibiza and Formentera Health Area says that more than 40 security-related actions have already been carried out at Can Misses and that further interventions are being considered.

However, the administration has not published a detailed list of these measures or explained how they are distributed across different areas of hospital security.

It has also not clarified which interventions concern physical infrastructure, access controls, security staffing or internal procedures.

This makes it difficult to assess the full extent of the changes already implemented or establish which identified vulnerabilities have been addressed.

The announcement comes against a background of several serious incidents at the hospital, although the Health Area has not explicitly linked the new measures to the judicial investigation into the most recent patient death.

Patient death remains under judicial investigation

One of the most recent incidents concerns the death of a 64-year-old woman who was found without signs of life in her room in the Internal Medicine inpatient unit on 19 September 2026.

According to the Health Area's original statement, the patient had experienced an episode of significant agitation that presented a risk to her own safety. Healthcare professionals had applied mechanical and pharmacological restraint measures in accordance with the relevant clinical protocols.

She was found dead during a routine monitoring visit at approximately 11:00.

The National Police subsequently investigated the circumstances of her death. On 28 October, officers arrested a man over his suspected involvement in the case. A judge later ordered provisional detention, with the possibility of release on bail.

The suspect's identity, his relationship with the patient and the precise circumstances of his alleged involvement have not been made public. The case remains under judicial secrecy.

Importantly, no publicly established finding has linked the woman's death to deficiencies in the hospital's security arrangements.

Two sexual assaults involving hospitalised patients

Security concerns at Can Misses also relate to two separate sexual assaults involving female patients in 2025 and 2026.

The most recent occurred in May 2026, when a man who was not part of the hospital entered the building during the night and sexually assaulted a woman who was receiving treatment as an inpatient.

According to reports at the time, the intruder forced two doors to gain access to the hospital. Police subsequently identified and arrested him after examining security camera footage.

Following the incident, the Health Area introduced additional access controls, including a card-based entry system at certain entrances that are not open to the general public. The closing time of the main entrance for visitors was also brought forward from 23:00 to 22:00.

The hospital additionally advanced its seasonal reinforcement of night security and began evaluating whether a larger security workforce would be needed throughout the year.

Earlier assault in the mental health unit

A separate sexual assault took place during the night of 18 to 19 March 2025, when a male patient in the hospital's Short-Stay Mental Health Inpatient Unit assaulted a 59-year-old woman who was also receiving treatment there.

The case resulted in a significant judicial development reported on 4 November 2026.

The Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands found that the sexual assault had been proven but acquitted the defendant after applying a complete exemption from criminal responsibility because of his serious psychiatric condition at the time of the offence.

Instead of a prison sentence, the court ordered his admission to a secure psychiatric facility for a maximum of ten years, together with five years of supervised release. The judgment also ordered compensation of €30,200 for the victim.

The distinction is important: the court did not find that the assault had not occurred. It found that the defendant's mental condition removed his criminal responsibility.

The two assaults occurred in different circumstances and should not be treated as a single security incident.

USAE questions whether existing safety protocols were being applied

The healthcare union USAE has also raised concerns about how certain security procedures were implemented at Can Misses.

Its representative, Alejandro Juan, told La Voz de Ibiza that some of the protocols introduced following incidents had already existed within the Balearic Health Service, but had not previously been applied at the Ibiza hospital.

His criticism focuses not only on the introduction of new measures but also on whether existing procedures were being implemented effectively.

The union has also highlighted the difficulty of controlling access across a large hospital complex with multiple entrances and restricted areas.

These are statements made by the union and should be distinguished from the Health Area's confirmation of the security interventions it has carried out. The available reporting does not provide a complete official response to each of the union's claims.

Security staff have carried out 861 interventions since 2020

The wider security workload at Can Misses is also reflected in figures previously reported by La Voz de Ibiza.

According to those figures, hospital security personnel carried out 861 interventions between 2020 and 2026 involving patients or other users who were agitated, distressed or behaving aggressively.

These incidents include situations in which healthcare professionals requested security assistance because a person's behaviour was creating a potentially difficult or unsafe situation.

The figure should not be interpreted as 861 criminal assaults. It records security interventions involving different types of incidents, some of which may be resolved within the hospital without police involvement.

One previous incident involved a man attempting to enter the hospital carrying a bladed weapon. Security personnel intercepted him.

Aggressions against healthcare professionals increased in 2025

The safety concerns extend beyond patients and visitors to the professionals working at the hospital.

According to figures cited in the report, the Ibiza and Formentera Health Area recorded 165 physical and verbal aggressions against healthcare workers in 2025, compared with 140 in 2024. This represents an increase of approximately 18%.

Around 87% of the reported incidents in 2025 were verbal aggressions.

Consuelo López, representing Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), has warned against allowing this type of behaviour to become normalised and called for a stronger response to aggression against healthcare professionals.

The figures underline that hospital security involves more than preventing unauthorised entry. It also includes protecting staff, patients and visitors from threats and violent behaviour within the facilities.

New safety barriers following a patient's fatal fall

Another major safety intervention followed the death of a 46-year-old patient who fell from a wall near the Emergency Department in December 2025.

The incident prompted the hospital to install a temporary protective barrier before developing a permanent solution.

The completed work involved 140 linear metres of high-security glass panels installed along the affected area. The panels measure 1.30 metres in height and sit on an existing wall approximately one metre high, bringing the total protective height to 2.30 metres.

The installation consists of 80 glass panels and was completed at the end of September 2026, following resistance testing and the assessment of different design proposals.

The work represents one of the more visible physical changes made to the hospital's infrastructure following a serious safety incident.

Security arrangements remain under review

The Health Area's confirmation of more than 40 interventions and further planned measures indicates that the review of Can Misses security is continuing.

However, without a detailed list of the completed actions, information about the outstanding work and a timetable for implementation, the precise scale of the planned changes remains unclear.

The incidents that have brought the issue into focus are also different in nature: unauthorised access, assaults involving hospitalised patients, aggression against healthcare professionals, a fatal fall and a death that remains under judicial investigation.

They cannot all be attributed to the same security failure, nor has the Health Area established a direct connection between the latest patient death and the hospital's security arrangements.

What remains clear is that the hospital is preparing further interventions while unions continue to question whether existing protocols have been applied consistently. The next stage will be to establish what additional measures are introduced, how they are implemented and whether they address the different safety risks facing patients and healthcare workers at Can Misses.